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OpenVMS Technical Journal - V11 April 2008

Welcome to V11 of the OpenVMS Technical Journal. As you may know this technical journal is done on a completely voluntary basis and hence "our other work" can take priority. I would like to
personally thank the team that makes the OpenVMS Technical Journal possible, you are truly a gift.

Article Abstract:
Volume Shadowing on OpenVMS guarantees that data is the same on all the members of the shadow set. Merge recovery operation is used to compare data on shadow set members to ensure that all of them
are identical on every logical block. This recovery operation should be done as quickly as possible so that shadow driver returns the identical data when read from any of the shadow set member at any
time. There have been several enhancements in the area of merge and copy operations. Host Based Minimerge (HBMM) improves merge operations by decreasing the number of comparisons needed to complete
the operation. Automatic Minicopy on Volume Processing (AMCVP) helps the expelled shadow set member to return to the shadow set using minicopy operation instead of full copy. Both are huge
performance win in volume shadowing. This article talks about the HBMM and AMCVP.

Author Bio:
Akila B. has worked with HP and OpenVMS Engineering for the last 7 years. Akila has worked with a number of products in the storage and clustering space. Akila currently works in OpenVMS Clusters
group. Akila has also written a Knowledge Brief on Archive Backup System.

Hints and Tricks When Using Dynamic Volume Expansion (DVE) on OpenVMS Systems

Article Abstract:
This article provides hints and ticks for using Dynamic Volume Expansion (DVE) on OpenVMS systems. Dynamic volume Expansion, which was first available in OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3-2 and HP OpenVMS
for Intergrity servers Version 8.2 allows system managers to increase the size (the number of logical blocks) of a mounted volume. Although often associate with OpenVMS Host-Based Volume Shadowing,
DVE can be implemented on nonshdowed volumes.

Author Bio:
Rob Eulenstein - Rob, joined Digital Equipment Corporation in March 1987. He has spent his entire tenure with Digital/Compaq/HP supporting OpenVMS from the Customer Support Center in Colorado
Springs, Colorado. He currently works as a consultant in Multivendor Systems Engineering which is part of GSE (Global Solutions Engineering). Rob's areas of expertise include: crash dump analysis,
internals, clusters, performance, shadowing, RMS, and the file system. Rob is a member of the OpenVMS Ambassadors organization which provides a highly demanded pre-sales support function as well as
an extremely important interface between customers and OpenVMS engineering. Rob holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. Rob lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife
and four children

WebSphere MQ and OpenVMS Failover Sets

Article Abstract:
WebSphere MQ is a messaging middleware product whose primary function is the transfer of a datagram from one application to another on one computer system, or from one application to an application
running on another computer system.

As with most such messaging products on the market today, MQ is only as robust as the underlying operating system and platform integrity permits. Thus, it is both proper and fortunate that IBM
exploited the unique active-active clustering features of the OpenVMS operating system, when it designed the unique failover capabilities embodied in the 5.3 release.

Because the features of OpenVMS Clusters are well known to the OpenVMS technical community, this document focuses on the WebSphere MQ capabilities designed in the OpenVMS implementation.

Author Bio:
John Edelmann - John has been involved in OpenVMS system management on VAX/Alpha systems since 1986, initially while employed at the Dept. of Energy's Mound Facility in Miamisburg, Ohio. In 1991 he
left to work for Siemens Energy and Automation, Motor and Drives Division, in Norwood, Ohio, where he led the implementation of a Digital Equipment Corporation VAX-based shop floor control system.

In 1995, he joined Digital Equipment Corporation, as a consultant for the Defense Logistics Agency's (DLA) Defense Automatic Addressing System Center (DAASC), located in Dayton, Ohio.

Since that time, he has continued a career in system management (software hardware installation, support, problem diagnosis and resolution) for the same DLA office. In May, 2000, John became an
OpenVMS Ambassador. At about the same time, he was assigned primary duties as the WebSphere MQ administrator for DAASC. He is a recognized subject matter expert in MQ Clustering, and other high
availability messaging system implementations, on various distributed MQ platforms, including HP-UX, HP OpenVMS, and Windows.

F$GETQUI to the Rescue

Article Abstract:
The DCL lexical F$GETQUI is a potent function that can be a bit confusing to deploy. This article demonstrates its usage via a useful DCL procedure designed to selectively delete jobs from a queue.

Author Bio:
Bruce Claremont has a degree in Computer Science and has been working with OpenVMS since 1983. Mr. Claremont has extensive programming, project management, and system management experience. He has
worked all sides of the fence, as a customer, software engineer, system manager, delivery specialist, project manager, and business owner. He founded Migration Specialties in 1992 and continues to
deliver OpenVMS, software migration, and legacy hardware replacement services. More information abo ut Migration Specialties products and services can be found at www.MigrationSpecialties.com.

How Flügger Modernized their OpenVMS Applications

Article Abstract:
About the Flugger company and why Flugger choose Digital VAX/VMS for the applications developed in COBOL on VMS. Flugger's business wanted to expand and this required making their applications
international and giving the applications a modern and intuitive look & feel for in the international locations.

"Seagull Software is the only IT vendor I am completely satisfied with, so far!" said IT Director Peer Gudmund-Jensen. "Their modernization product, extends the lifetime of OpenVMS based
applications, which in my mind is the most reliable system available in the market. We have not have found a solution equal to Seagull to meet our business objectives. We hope that Seagull will grow,
especially in Denmark."

Author Bio:
Roger van Valen, - Roger is a Lead Developer Protocols for Seagull Software in Dordrecth, The Netherlands. Roger, has been with Seagull Software since 2000 and is working in the Development lab on
the LegaSuite GUI for VT (aka WinJa for VT)products as well as on other areas of the LegaSuite solution set.

RMS Collector for T4 and Friends

Article Abstract:
T4 is a great tool. It's real power lies in it's extensibility. But even for experienced system manager can take some time to figure out, how to add an extension into T4. This article describe a
simple way to modify T4 collection procedure t o allow easy addition of new T4 Friends.

Author Bio:
Gorazd Kikelj- Gorazd has worked in the IT industry for more than 20 years. Gorazd first starting working on VMS in 1993, when he first ran VMS on a VAX. Over the following years he has used all
sorts of programming languages; pascal, fortran, cobol, RPG, Prolog, lisp, perl. But as a VMS Bigot personal favorite is still DCL. Gorazd has worked on all sides of the fence, first as customer
where he was a programer and system manager. Then a Service Partner where his role was as a OpenVMS L1 Support Engineer. Then from 2004 as an HP Customer Engineer and Account Support Manager. OpenVMS
is still his biggest love and passion.